When competitors use your trademark in their Google Ads campaigns, there are many adverse effects including decreased clickthrough rate (CTR) and increased cost-per-click (CPC) for your ads as well as a poor customer experience for your customers. It’s also annoying for any digital marketer to see a competitor in the top spot on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) using your trademark!
What’s wrong with this picture?
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It depends on who you ask. This ad likely upset Restoration Hardware. Brands tend to want to occupy position one on branded searches. Joss & Main, on the other hand, was likely happy to see that their strategy of bidding on a slight misspelling of Restoration Hardware’s brand name (ie. Restorationhardware), put their ad in position one on the SERP, ahead of their competitor.
But, what does Google have to say about all this? Is it even allowed? Google does not allow competitors to use trademarked terms in the ad title or ad copy. In the example above, if Restoration Hardware were to submit the ad for take down, Google would have likely removed it. You can use a brand name (or a competitor’s brand name) in the display URL of your ad.
It can be difficult, however, to interpret what Google’s rules actually mean in real life and in terms of what brand owners can and should do to protect their brand. This blog post – the second in a four-part series –will explain and show examples of what is and what is not allowed according to Google’s Ads Trademark Rules.
In 2019, Google announced that they were consolidating their trademark rules into a single global policy. The main exception to the global policy is that in the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) regions, Google may restrict the use of a trademark as a keyword. First we’ll explain the global Google Ads Trademark Advertising Policy and then we’ll discuss the EU and EFTA exception.
Trademarks as Keywords
While brand bidding can be frustrating and costly if a competitor uses your trademarked terms, on the flip side, you can use brand bidding to your advantage. Bidding on your own trademark you can help you increase incremental search traffic and conversions, dominate the mobile SERP, and keep your competitors and affiliates at bay.
The important thing to remember is that Google will never restrict trademark usage as a keyword.
Display URL Use
Anyone can use your trademark in their display URL (the website URL that's shown with the ad). For example, this type of use of Nike’s trademark in the display url would be allowed under Google’s rules:
All Tennis Shoes at Discount
Prices at Shoes Galore Outlet
www.shoesgalore.com/Nike
However, in response to a complaint about an Expanded Text Ad, Google
may restrict a trademark from appearing in the subdomain of an advertiser’s display URL. If they restrict it, this doesn’t mean they will take down the ad, but they may remove the subdomain from appearing in the display URL. Google advises trademark owners can contact the advertiser directly if they have any other concerns about display URLs.
Ad Copy
Google only allows the brand holder, resellers, and informational sites to use the trademark in the ad title or ad text.
Resellers can use trademark in the ad copy as long as the ad’s landing page is primarily dedicated to selling products or services corresponding to the trademark. The page must clearly facilitate the sale of the product and provide information such as price or rate for the product or service.
If you are a shoe reseller like Zappos selling branded products such as Adidas on your website, Google will allow the use of the Adidas trademark in the Zappos ad copy as long as the person searching for the Adidas shoe is clearly able to purchase them on the Zappos site. A consumer may prefer to buy a pair of Adidas shoes via Zappos (the legendary customer service, loyalty points, or free returns are all good reasons to shop via Zappos!) instead of buying direct via Adidas.com.
You’ll notice in the SERP below, Nordstrom, also a reseller of Adidas shoes, shows up under the Adidas paid search ad. Both Nordstrom and Zappos are using the Adidas trademark in their ad copy, and both are allowed under the reseller policy by Google.
Google does place some restrictions on reseller and informational sites. The following are not allowed under the reseller and informational site policy:
- Ads referring to the trademark for competitive purposes. Most of the time when we see a trademark being used for competitive purposes it is when a competitor is bidding on a competing brand’s trademarked terms, not a reseller or an informational site using a trademark competitively.
For example, below we see Acuity Scheduling using it’s competitor Calendly’s trademark.
- Ads with landing pages that require users to provide extensive information before displaying commercial information. We commonly see this tactic used by lead generators, especially in the insurance and consumer finance industry. With the BrandVerity Search Monitoring tool we found the example below. ZipQuote.com is using Hagerty Insurance’s trademark on a search for their brand.
- Ads that are unclear as to whether the advertiser is a reseller or informational site.
Authorized advertisers
The following types of ads may use a trademarked term in ad text:
- Ads using the term descriptively in its ordinary meaning rather than in reference to the trademark. For example, “Apple” is a trademarked term, but an online grocery store can refer to an apple in their ad text.
- Ads referring to goods or services that do not correspond to the trademark. The example of Uber Conference (an online conferencing site) vs. Uber (the rideshare app) illustrates this point. Both have the word “Uber” in their name but they offer different goods and services. Therefore, both companies, can use “Uber” in the ad text of their ads.
Trademarks as Keywords
For ads targeting the EU and EFTA regions, Google may restrict the use of a trademark as a keyword. This is the main difference between the US and EU Trademark Policies.
In the EU, the types of ads in the list below may use the trademark as a keyword, provided that the combination of the keyword and ad text is not confusing. Google notes on their Advertising Policies Help page that this list is meant to be illustrative, not exhaustive.
- Ads using a term descriptively or generically rather than in reference to the trademark.
- Ads for competing products or services.
- Ads for the sale of products or services, replacement parts, or compatible products or services corresponding to the trademark.
- Ads for sites that provide informative details about products or services corresponding to the trademark.
- For certain ad extensions and formats only: Ads referring to the trademark to provide additional information about the advertised products or services.
Our first blog in this series, Google AdWords Trademark Policies: Top 8 Questions, answers the most commonly-asked questions our Customer Success Team has answered on the topic of Google’s trademark rules.
Our next two pieces in this series will explain how brand owners can combat trademark infringements and how to set up a paid search monitoring program.
Ready to start protecting your trademarked terms in Google? Our Paid Search Monitoring demo gives you full and customized access to BrandVerity’s platform with your data.
